Labor committee passes bill that would levy fees on large employers with low-wage workers

HARTFORD — The legislature's labor committee voted 6-4 Tuesday to advance a bill that would levy fees on large for-profit employers with low-wage workers.

The measure, which would raise hundreds of millions of dollars a year for state coffers, would charge employers a fee of $1 an hour for each worker paid an hourly wage of $15 or less. The bill would affect all non-union, for-profit companies with 500 workers or more. A similar bill, which has already passed the committee, covers companies with 250 workers or more.

Individual franchises would be included, because the franchisers' total employment would meet the 500-worker threshold.

Employers with unionized workers — such as Stop & Shop or for-profit nursing home chains — would not be penalized for sub-$15 wages until the current contracts expire.

In a hearing discussing the bill, two Democrats and a Working Families Party member supported the proposal, one Democrat expressed doubts, and two Republicans criticized it.

Committee Co-Chairman Sen. Ed Gomes responded to the concerns of colleague Rep. Kurt Vail, R-Stafford, that the law would reinforce Connecticut's poor rankings for being pro-business.

"We get this thing about we're being business unfriendly," Gomes said. "I think it's time to be employee friendly."

Gomes said one woman told him she worked at the same place for 14 years, and the "only time she ever got a raise was when the minimum wage was raised."

Proponents say the measure would generate roughly $300 million a year in revenue for the state.

Rep. Louis Esposito, D-West Haven, who voted against the previous bill and voted no again Tuesday, told committee Co-Chairman Rep. Peter Tercyak, D-New Britain: "The money isn't going to the employees. They're getting nothing out of this. Why isn't some of this money going back to the employees if we're so concerned with low-wage workers?"

He also said he was worried that more entry-level workers would be unemployed as a result of the bill, which would be even more expensive for the state.

A previous version of this bill, which died in the finance committee last year, would have required employers to pay 130 percent of minimum wage, or $1 per hour worked by those who earn less than that. With that bill, more workers would have been within $1 of the target and therefore giving them a raise would be cheaper for corporations than paying the fee.

Rep. Craig Miner, R-Litchfield, told Gomes that they agree on the goal of getting more people in jobs that pay well enough that they can be self-sufficient without Medicaid or child care subsidies.

"If we keep pecking away at this bottom of the ladder, I don't think it's going to get us to where we want," Miner said. He said he believed more workers need to advance in skills so that they qualify for better trades.